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YouTube Tests New Video Page Design

A new YouTube design for video, channel, and playlist pages is on the way. YouTube has temporarily dubbed it “Cosmic Panda” and put up a preview version for all to see.

The direct implications for businesses with a YouTube presence are minimal since there are no significant functional changes, but it’s good to stay on top of this stuff.

The most notable change is from a white background for videos to a grey and black background. This makes for a much more pleasant viewing experience for folks who want to focus on the content. Channel pages look much more modern than they used to, with less superfluous, text-based profile data, and prominent thumbnails for playlists and videos. Playlists appear as a navigable swipe of thumbnails below each video as you play it.

YouTube hasn’t announced when it will make Cosmic Panda the default experience for everyone, and this version isn’t final. The company will likely tweak the design slightly based on feedback from the YouTube community.

You can visit TestTube, a website with a bunch of in-the-works YouTube features, to activate Cosmic Panda to check it out for yourself. You can revert to the old version whenever you want. If you’re still not feeling that bold, just take a look at the images below to get an idea of what’s coming.

Image: New YouTube Video

Image: New YouTube Channels

Samuel Axon: Samuel is the Editorial Director supervising Sprout Social's editorial and web content projects. He has years of experience in blogging and social media, having previously worked as an editor at social media and technology news sites Mashable and Engadget. He also helped build the white label web content management system Crowd Fusion from the ground up.